In this chapter we give a short summary of the literature on changing risks and the welfare state. The welfare state is presented here as an institution which deals with the social risks of an industrial society. Organised social solidarity, institutionalised in the provisions of the welfare state, are used to cope with the social risks of an industrialised society. It is often argued that the social solidarity of the welfare state is being eroded. New risks, a new logic of risk production, and a new risk culture are undermining the social foundation of welfare state solidarity. The changes in risks, risk production and risk culture are attributed to social and economic change, which resulted from the transformation towards a post-industrial society. Individualisation and globalisation are the key processes in this transformation. In this book, we investigate whether risk perception is changing and whether this undermines welfare state solidarity. Changes in risk perception and in solidarity will affect the way risks are dealt with. This is the third issue on which this book focuses: the changing nature of risk management in post-industrial society. We do not simply expect to see an erosion of solidarity. Therefore we want to investigate how changes in risk perception and solidarity affect the welfare settlement and whether a new welfarism, as is often suggested, is coming into existence.

Introduction

The welfare state and its programmes of social insurance and social protection are intended to deal with the risks encountered in the typical life-course of a worker in an industrial economy: the risks of unemployment, disability and old age. However, processes of individualisation and globalisation that are part and parcel of a transformation towards a post-industrial society have revolutionised social and economic relations. The transformation towards a service-economy goes hand-in-hand with a change in cultural values in the direction of a so-called post-materialist culture. This implies a switch from materialist values, emphasising economic security, to post-materialist values emphasising autonomy and self-expression (Inglehart 1977).

It is often suggested that these social and economic developments undermine the foundations of the welfare state (Taylor-Gooby a.o. 1999, 2011).